Guilderland school voters OK $17.3M proposal

Second referendum fails, sidelining football field light replacements and auditorium upgrades

Posted flyers at Altamont Elementary School on Thursday, Nov. 14, remind district residents to vote on the two building project propositions. The first and larger proposition passed, but the second failed.
Photo by Kristen Roberts.

continued  Facilities Committee members recommended separating the two proposals because it was believed the larger proposal best captured needed facility improvements.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders was unsure what the outcome would have been if both proposals were combined into one.

“We don’t know the thoughts of the voters when they go to the polls,” Sanders said.

Wiles said if two proposals were combined and voters choose to reject it, that would have been “a very bad thing.”

Wiles previously said many of the items included in the first proposal were things the “average homeowner” would understand as needed.

“I think these are the types of needs people deal with in their homes all the time,” Sanders said, “so you don’t have to stretch too far to understand you need to replace a roof after many years … and those sorts of things.”

Building infrastructure upgrades totaling $14 million were a majority of the first proposal’s cost. Some of the more expensive improvements this includes are roof replacements ($4.7 million), parking lot paving ($2 million), boiler and controls replacement ($1.2 million), flooring replacement ($978,300) and mechanical equipment replacement ($971,400).

For those turning out to the polls, it was possibly their second week casting a ballot.

Sanders said the vote was scheduled for Nov. 14 because of the timeframe required for the project. The committee also did not complete its work until the end of June after the district’s annual budget vote.

Holding the vote on Election Day would not be ideal, he said, because polling locations for the district and local elections are different. He questioned how many people would make the effort to cast ballots at two different polling locations.